Senior Counsel Victor Dawes has been re-elected to lead the Hong Kong Bar Association, the sole body regulating 1,600 barristers in the city, for a third term, the Post has learned.
The Hong Kong-born and raised barrister with Temple Chambers took the helm in 2022. He was re-elected uncontested alongside vice-chairman Jose Antonio Maurellet and Derek Chan Ching-lung at the group’s annual general meeting on Thursday night, sources said.
Dawes told the Post that “2024 will be an important year for Hong Kong and the new Bar Council will do our very best in discharging our duties in contributing to important rule of law issues”.
He also thanked the association’s members for their support over the past two years.
Also re-elected for another year were secretary and treasurer Eugene Yim Wing-tsang, deputy secretary Martin Wong Wing-hoi and five other council members including Isaac Chan Chi-kong and Kim Rooney. Another six members will continue to serve their terms for the second year.
It is expected that a major challenge ahead for the group’s leadership is to strike a balancing act between safeguarding national security and protecting rights in advising the government on the legislation of a home-grown security law, dubbed Article 23 of the Basic Law, in the coming months.
The association had said it would offer advice on the matter “in an independent manner” and asked the government to undergo “thorough consultation” with members of the public, according to a statement last week.
Under Dawes’ leadership, the relationship between Beijing and the professional group has turned around, with regular exchanges across the border resuming after five years of suspension.
Hong Kong Bar Association warns any US sanctions could pose ‘threat’ to judiciary
But Dawes also addressed various hot-button legal issues throughout his two-year tenure.
In 2022, he publicly suggested the country’s top legislative body should exercise its interpretative power for the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, “sparingly”, after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said he had asked it to interpret the national security law regarding whether overseas counsel could participate in cases.
Last June, when the government sought a court order to permanently bar anyone from advocating for popular protest song “Glory to Hong Kong”, Dawes also weighed in.
He suggested the right balance needed to be struck between maintaining national security and protecting freedom of speech and that residents were entitled to know with clarity what sort of conduct would be prohibited if the order was granted.
Last April, he led a delegation to Beijing in an ice-breaking trip to discuss a range of legal issues with senior mainland Chinese officials. Members of the association also recommenced in-person teaching classes about the common law system in Peking University.
Four months later, Dawes and dozens of legal professionals joined Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok on another visit to the capital to attend a seminar discussing how Hong Kong could support mainland firms to go global.
The Hong Kong Bar Association was founded in 1949. Its ties with Beijing were severed in 2018, when prominent human rights lawyer Philip Dykes took over as chairman. Under his leadership, the professional group raised concerns over an extradition bill that later triggered months-long protests.
‘Strong bar’ in Hong Kong enables independent judiciary, association head says
Dykes was succeeded by Paul Harris in 2021, who was labelled an “anti-China politician” after commenting that certain provisions under the Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020 did not comply with rights guaranteed under the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
Dykes was the group’s longest-serving chairman. He held the role from 2005 to 2007 and from 2018 to 2021.
Denis Chang Khen-lee and Martin Lee Chu-ming also served three terms respectively in the 1980s.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51ku6bD0mifqKaXYriwusZoo5qvXZa7pXnCq6CmnV%2BWv7W1wqWcaGtiaYV6g5Jon6iml2K4sLrGZpmaql2WwLS7wqKYraGfo3qzsYyeo56bpKh6t7XCraarZZSWxKa%2FjJyfmqGioq6vedOhoKucXamys7k%3D